It was released today for my unlocked SGS2. Downloading now. I'm not expecting much, since Touchwiz already had most of the features that ICS is supposed to bring. The two main things that interests me are actual ICS exclusive apps; the full Chrome browsers (beta, of course), and Apex Launcher.

I have managed to resist the ICS ROMS out, even the ones with working hardware acceleration, just because of stuff that I use not having the drivers available, like the camera, as it doesn't look like the EVO is getting a release. Hardware acceleration is all that I am jealous of.

I have managed to resist the ICS ROMS out, even the ones with working hardware acceleration, just because of stuff that I use not having the drivers available, like the camera, as it doesn't look like the EVO is getting a release. Hardware acceleration is all that I am jealous of.

No, the hardware acceleration looks interesting. Is there something badass about the browser?
Was just over at XDA, looks like there are a few ICS ROMS for EVO that have working camera, but no 4g, unfortunately I actually get 4g. I would like to try ICS. I would grab a new phone from Sprint before my upgrade cred expires but I am seriously not able to choose. Waiting seems like a better option. But if they had a phone I could work with and keep 4g I would go for it, but no. Was almost thinking about a Photon. Rooting and unlock breaks 4g on that phone.

No, the hardware acceleration looks interesting. Is there something badass about the browser?

Ahh, ok. Android's UI has always been hardware accelerated, it's just that the number of layers (versus the one layer for iOS) caused it to need a high fill-rate to accelerate everything. This lead to parts of the UI being accelerated and parts not being accelerated, at the OEM's discretion. The reason your phone doesn't have it in the ICS "betas" is because Qualcomm hasn't released ICS compatible drivers that fully support the Adreno 200 (your GPU). Currently, some developers are trying to modify the drivers from the Adreno 205/220 to support the 200. Even then, the low fill-rate means that only one layer can be properly accelerated, and most developers use it for the notification shade.

The reason I asked is because a LOT of people attribute the silky smooth web browser of the iPhone as being that way due to hardware acceleration. This is actually not the case and I did write-up for another website awhile back on this topic. Without going into anal-retentive detail, Google chose to render the entire webpage whereas Apple chose to use tiling. Tiling has the drawback of causing a checkerboard affect when quickly scrolled, so Apple made it so that scrolling is effectively like a page-down button. You can only flick through one tile at a time unlike Android where you can scroll down the whole damn page in one scroll.

Samsung adopted tiling in their Gingerbread browser for the SGS2 (not sure if they put it on the original SGS). Below are some comparisons I did to highlight the differences. The Moto Razer and HTC Rezound were on GB at the time, using the old method. The iPhone 4s and SGS2 were using tiling. The Galaxy Nexus was using a newer, enhanced version of tiling that will be on the browsers for all ICS phones (and it seems I got it on my SGS2 last night).

I have became addicted to MIUI. This week was the new 4.0.4. No 4g but I can live without it. The rom is seriously smooth. nonHWA. There were some new things brought into the code. Not sure I understand but it is awesome!